December 1999 and Jimmy was aged 27 and having his 1-year anniversary of being a stand up (see 1998 posts here).
A few months before he’d met a 19-year-old Russell Howard at So You Think You’re Funny? (here) which was held at the Edinburgh Fringe.
And now they were about to be on the same stage at a “new act night” at the Cosmic Comedy Club, Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith.
Entrance was free and the Tuesday December 7th, 8pm show featured:
- Compere – Howard Read
- Lee Molloy
- Joseph Glazey
- Russell Howard
- Laurie Crowther
- Fairybox
- Jimmy Carr
- John Radoux
- Mark Crosby
Jimmy made several appearances at The Cosmic – see these posts.
Who else was gigging?
That Tuesday also saw Ed Byrne in action, across at the Beck Theatre in Hayes. Ed had started in comedy around 1993 and, by this point, was getting paid for his solo gigs (£10).
Saturday December 4th 1999
The Bearcat Comedy Club had a Brit, 2 Canadians and an impressionist on the bill at the Turk’s Head, Winchester Road. Starting at 8.30pm tickets were £5 – £8:
- Simon Evans (here, GB News contributor)
- Mike Wilmot
- Russell Peters
- Alistair McGowan
Laughing Club had a £7, 8.30pm show at The Room, Orange Tree Pub, Kew Road, Richmond:
- James Holmes – compere
- Rob Hitchmough
- Shelagh Martin
- Greg Burns
- Shappi Khorsandi
- Tom Nicholls
And Ha Bloody Ha were at Chiswick Comedy Club, Rowan’s Café bar, Stile Hall Parade where the 8.30pm line up was £10:
- Ian Cognito
- Ian Moore
- Nick Witty
- Shaun Pye
Shaun is possibly better known as a comedy writer, on shows like 8oo10c, Cats Countdown, WILTY, HIGNFY etc. (see IMDB)
Background
At this stage in his career Jimmy was still just performing above pubs and “going on stage after strippers” (his words) so there was no tour name at this point. Just driving up and down the UK, sometimes doing 2-3 venues a night, trying to get spots on open nights and hoping to get enough to cover his petrol money.
There is a page (here) about the UK Comedy Circuit and Pubs & Clubs 1998-2001 (here) is a run through of a list of Jimmy’s early gigs.
There is another page that may be of interest (here) for The Year 1999. It lists everyone that I can confirm were on the circuit with him, plus which comics were on TV / Radio that year.
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